As for what to do in the meantime, how about buying some new iMacs?

Apple CEO Tim Cook surprised investors and Apple-watchers alike on Tuesday by strongly hinting that new products would come out during the fourth fiscal quarter of the year, continuing throughout fiscal 2014. That indicates there still won't be much to see as we charge into Apple's Q3 (which Apple will report toward the end of June), but there may be new products in our grubby little hands by the time the holidays hit this year.

Let's back up a few steps. Apple reported its second quarter 2013 earnings today, which included a quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion (compared to $39.2 billion a year ago) and a quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion (compared to $11.6 billion a year ago). Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones during the second quarter, up slightly from 35.1 million in last year's Q2, as well as 19.5 million iPads, up from 11.8 million. Macs stayed relatively flat at "just under" 4 million, while Apple delivered 4 million units in the same quarter last year. iPods continued to fall from 7.7 million units this time last year to just 5.63 million units. (Update: this paragraph had several mentions of "billion" after product numbers, which were meant to be "million." Apologies for the typo.)

Casey Johnston

In addition to the numbers—which, as usual, both confused and upset some investors who were hoping for more—Apple also announced that it would be doubling its capital returns program. The program, announced in 2012, will now pay out a total of $100 billion in cash to investors by the end of calendar year 2015, reflecting $55 billion added to the program since its introduction last year. Apple's board of directors also increased its share repurchase program from $10 billion to $60 billion. "This is the largest single share repurchase authorization in history and is expected to be executed by the end of calendar 2015," Apple wrote in its press release.

That's not all: Apple also announced that the board approved a 15 percent increase in the quarterly dividend, increasing the payout from $2.65 per common share to $3.05 as of May 16, 2013. During the Q2 call, Apple patted itself on the back for being one of the "largest dividend payers in the world," with payments hovering around $11 billion per year.

Cook dialed back his critiques of the competition during this quarter's call to reassure investors that things are still on track for the June quarter—even if we might not see exciting new products until later in the year. The biggest item of concern for those on the call appeared to be Apple's guidance for relatively low margins throughout Q3: Apple said it expects margins to sit at about 36-37 percent throughout the quarter, which is lower than it has been in recent years. Cook repeated to analysts that the company is committed to making strategic investments and product launches, which may result in temporary lower margins while the company brings in new users.

But as for those new products, Apple's exec team wouldn't crack. "Our teams are hard at work at some amazing new hardware, software, and services that we can't wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014," Cook said in the beginning of the call. One analyst tried to get more details later on, asking if Cook's comments "indicate there are no substantial new products until September?" Cook repeated his usual line about not elaborating: "I don't want to be more specific, but I'm just saying we've got some really great stuff coming in the fall and across all of 2014," Cook replied.

In all the results were neither disappointing nor mindblowing, though it's clear the investor community is nervous about Apple's lower margins and apparent lack of new product launches until the fourth quarter. Apple, on the other hand, maintained that things are better than ever and that we would see a new product category sooner than later. The question is: will it be an iWatch, an Apple television set, a Pandora-like music service, a cheaper iPhone, or none of the above?

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

87 Reader Comments

To me, the most interesting part about the "this fall and into 2014" quote is that they are admitting they've basically got nothing for the next four months. I guess maybe that still leaves room for speed bumped stuff -- iPhone 5S, speed-bumped Macs -- and OS previews at WWDC, but don't hold your breath for anything really new to be released until September.

To me, the most interesting part about the "this fall and into 2014" quote is that they are admitting they've basically got nothing for the next four months. I guess maybe that still leaves room for speed bumped stuff -- iPhone 5S, speed-bumped Macs -- and OS previews at WWDC, but don't hold your breath for anything really new to be released until September.

Which is probably why investors are worried. Though, they're worried about making x billion, instead of 1.5x billion...

How long before investors are worried at Apple not releasing a new phone every two months?

And are consumers actually starting to get fed up that Apple isn't making their /ancient/ iPhone 5 obsolete fast enough? Try being pleased that they're taking their time on something, for the first time in awhile. Having an iPad Mini or iPhone 5 isn't exactly akin to banging a stick against a rock quite yet. It's probably for the best that you are waiting another year, as it probably means more improvements in one package.

To me, the most interesting part about the "this fall and into 2014" quote is that they are admitting they've basically got nothing for the next four months. I guess maybe that still leaves room for speed bumped stuff -- iPhone 5S, speed-bumped Macs -- and OS previews at WWDC, but don't hold your breath for anything really new to be released until September.

I think it's smart to drop the hint. People holding out hope for a new cycle now have motivation not to wait for the fall refresh.

I guess I have to be the villain that points out that people were complaining like mad at the steady stream of updated products that Apple has been releasing in the last few years.

One quarter of no new releases and suddenly the complaining shifts.

Definitely... When they released iPad 4 there was all this grumbling about it coming "too soon" and "planned obsolescence". Now when we don't get iPad Mini v2 or iPad 5 in Q3 there is grumbling that Apple is taking too long to release new products.

I'm just glad Apple is buying back their own stock. There is no better investment on the market right now and as an AAPL investor, I would love for Apple to weed out the panicked group of investors by buying their shares. After Apple buys them out, then they should announce an even larger dividend.

<selfish>I didn't like hearing the "new product markets" comment, because I just want the Mac Pro | Replacement to be released. I'm not personally interested in a watch or tv set (though AppleTV is great).</selfish>

As an AAPL investor who can take an obvious hint from the past year, if they don't invent something completely new and revolutionary the stock will tank - because that's where expectations have been set and the negativity drives pageviews.

They need time to fix the things that are broken in the ecosystem, a "tick" in the tick-tock model used by Intel. Given that the press will never actually be happy, they might as well spend this year catching up on fixes similar to the time spent on Snow Leopard - which was boring as heck but address tons of overdue issues.

What's really interesting to me in that second chart, the line chart, is that you can absolutely see the spikes in iOS devices as Apple releases their updated products. But the Mac line... it's pretty smooth all the way through.

It's as if Apple's refresh schedule doesn't matter to buyers. Or maybe the release schedule is less predictable? Could also be that personal computers today are seen as "good enough" to get whatever is on the shelf now rather than holding off (since it won't get much better anyway, or so the thinking goes).

<selfish>I didn't like hearing the "new product markets" comment, because I just want the Mac Pro | Replacement to be released. I'm not personally interested in a watch or tv set (though AppleTV is great).</selfish>

As an AAPL investor who can take an obvious hint from the past year, if they don't invent something completely new and revolutionary the stock will tank - because that's where expectations have been set and the negativity drives pageviews.

They need time to fix the things that are broken in the ecosystem, a "tick" in the tick-tock model used by Intel. Given that the press will never actually be happy, they might as well spend this year catching up on fixes similar to the time spent on Snow Leopard - which was boring as heck but address tons of overdue issues.

I think the new Mac Pro is coming for WWDC, but it is not considered a big time release since it has a limited audience.

Also, while the press is never impressed, it seems Apple customers have been very impressed considering their 9th straight JD Power customer satisfaction win.

Meanwhile Apple's competitors are paying students to write fake reviews of other people's products on tech forums to generate their buzz. When Fortune / CNN Money ran an article on it, they specifically saw a huge uptick of coordinated response in their forums.

I think the new Mac Pro is coming for WWDC, but it is not considered a big time release since it has a limited audience.

Still too late. It's been what, 3 months since Apple stopped selling a MacPro in Europe because "hey, regulations are for suckers". Everybody and their dog was expecting an announcement at NAB. Now it's mid-June if it's on the WWDC...

I think the new Mac Pro is coming for WWDC, but it is not considered a big time release since it has a limited audience.

Still too late. It's been what, 3 months since Apple stopped selling a MacPro in Europe because "hey, regulations are for suckers". Everybody and their dog was expecting an announcement at NAB. Now it's mid-June if it's on the WWDC...

Where do you get "hey, regulations are for suckers" from Apple's reaction to the regulations? It sounds more to me like "we have a new product planned so we'll tool our factories for that rather than tooling for a retrofit on the old model."

I guess I have to be the villain that points out that people were complaining like mad at the steady stream of updated products that Apple has been releasing in the last few years.

One quarter of no new releases and suddenly the complaining shifts.

The complainers were customers. The worriers are investors. Investors couldn't care less what the company does, or what damage they do to themselves and their stakeholders, as long as the share price stays up long enough for them to dump it.

I think the new Mac Pro is coming for WWDC, but it is not considered a big time release since it has a limited audience.

Still too late. It's been what, 3 months since Apple stopped selling a MacPro in Europe because "hey, regulations are for suckers". Everybody and their dog was expecting an announcement at NAB. Now it's mid-June if it's on the WWDC...

Where do you get "hey, regulations are for suckers" from Apple's reaction to the regulations? It sounds more to me like "we have a new product planned so we'll tool our factories for that rather than tooling for a retrofit on the old model."

It's not like the regulation came as a surprise. It was published December 2011 with drafts circulated long before that. And the March 2013 cut-off was there from the beginning.

Of course, most other workstation companies invest SOME amount of regular engineering on their systems instead of pushing a speedbump and calling it a day.

And it's not an EU regulation, it's an international safety standard which is also enforced by UL. But, the UL will accept IT equipment to carry on using the old standard if there are no big changes while the EU won't. However, any submission or re-submission to UL after March 2013 will be held to the new standard.

What's really interesting to me in that second chart, the line chart, is that you can absolutely see the spikes in iOS devices as Apple releases their updated products. But the Mac line... it's pretty smooth all the way through.

It's as if Apple's refresh schedule doesn't matter to buyers. Or maybe the release schedule is less predictable? Could also be that personal computers today are seen as "good enough" to get whatever is on the shelf now rather than holding off (since it won't get much better anyway, or so the thinking goes).

What do you all think?

I think you probably nailed it—computers are perceived as "good enough" and can be bought off-cycle. The new thinner iMacs weren't really that much of a performance bump, so the iMac I bought prior to the refresh is definitely still good enough. Retina MacBooks are definitely good enough if you max them out. I would actually say that even the iPhone 5 and iPad 4 are finally to the point where they are "good enough"—more speed won't make a huge amount of difference, especially to the phone.

How long before investors are worried at Apple not releasing a new phone every two months?

Investors are one of the worst things to ever happen to apple and the stock buyback is just another step in the direction of not having to bother with them anymore.

Sneakily, I think this, too: AAPL could be looking, over time, to effectively take itself private. Apple without all the negativity surrounding AAPL is a much smaller, tougher target for all the pageview-mongers to attach their specious narratives to.

Still too late. It's been what, 3 months since Apple stopped selling a MacPro in Europe because "hey, regulations are for suckers". Everybody and their dog was expecting an announcement at NAB. Now it's mid-June if it's on the WWDC...

You expected an announcement at NAB? Seriously? Apple hasn't had a presence there in YEARS - there's no way they were going to announce the new Mac Pro at NAB.

When combined with some other of Tim's comments ("We should have waited to release the new iMac"), I think the shift is to be sure that they don't announce any ship-dates where they can't meet demand. I don't think any internal schedules have really changed, other than possibly the announcements...

Apple is not lacking in quality hardware. The iPhone is still the best built phone (HTC One looks promising though.) Apple is lacking in software/interface development, and is lacking in the connectivity that other devices and OS's are experiencing.

This is why Ives was put in charge of the iOS interface, It is in serious need of a refresh.

Windows Phone and Android both make iOS look like it was built for an 8 year old girl. Faux leather? Faux paper? Torn edges?